Exploring the Relationship Between Educational Theories and Occupational Therapy Studies: A Correlation Analysis of Kolb’s Learning Steps, Learning Styles, and Dunn’s Sensory Processing Patterns Among Iranian Occupational Therapy Students

Abstract

Background. Learning encompasses lasting alterations in behavior stemming from experience. The sensory system receives and interprets information gathered from individual experiences, priming it for integration with other neuro-psychological facets of learning. The processes and modalities of learning, juxtaposed with sensory processing, may or may not exhibit interrelation akin to gears within a learning clock mechanism. The objective is to explore the potential correlation between the stages and styles of learning outlined by Kolb and the sensory processing patterns delineated in Dunn's model. Methods This correlational study involved undergraduate Occupational Therapy students from the Rehabilitation Faculty at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS) in Iran. In 2018, all students were invited to participate and were asked to complete two questionnaires: The Kolb Learning Styles Inventory and the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile. Out of 83 distributed questionnaires, responses from 62 participants were included in the analysis. The collected data underwent descriptive and analytical statistical analyses using SPSS23 software. Results Findings revealed no significant correlation between Kolb's Learning Steps and Learning Styles and Dunn's Sensory Processing Patterns among Iranian Occupational Therapy students (p-value>0.05). However, there was a correlation between low registration and preferred learning steps among female students (p-value=0.003). Conclusion The findings suggest no correlation between learning steps and learning styles with sensory processing patterns overall. However, gender-based analysis indicates a potential correlation among participants exhibiting low registration sensory patterns.

Keywords

• education
• learning
• occupational therapy
• sensation
• students